Happy National Cat Folx Day – April 19

Today is a very important holiday that we have slightly tweaked to represent all the wonderful people who have bonds with cats. National Cat Ladies Folx Day seems a little random without much documentation, but we are used to that. I’ve changed ‘cat lady’ to ‘cat folx’ to be more representative of the lush diversity […]

The Pet Food Pantry Needs Paper Towels and Baby Wipes for Cat Colony Spring Cleaning

The Dr. John P. Ruffing VMD Pet Food Projects pet food pantry has been operating for six months. We have 40 active caretakers/households registered and 60 total. We typically give 11-15 pounds of dry and 20 cans of wet each month. We’ve also been working to get people connected with each other, especially neighbors. We’ve […]

On This St. Gertrude’s Day, Be Your Mother’s Savage Daughter, Don’t Lower Your Voice

I like this song. I was first introduced through a cover version, but this flipcamera version is much better. Some people who write about this song are a little over the top with their inner wild woman howling at the moon imagery. That typically hits me as appropriative and artificial. And I don’t like those […]

What Happened to the Political Q&As?

I am behind in publishing the Q&A’s, I know, I know. The ACDC endorsement is Sunday, I know, I know. It has just been a very hard month so I am behind. I will catch up this week. It is my primary goal. Housework, laundry, and Q&A’s. And cats. I got some good news today […]

Being underestimated might be my superpower

I am not supposed to talk about any of my lawsuits (all civil matters) so I want to talk about my life, my day to day life as a person with multiple civil lawsuits she can’t discuss. And multiple disabilities. After six months of homelessness (couch surfing), I returned to my home of 20 years […]

The Heaviness of Being Dependent on Other People

cold snowy day

I’ve been emotionally struggling recently, a combination of post-holiday ennui with a reflection on my current situation. Also, I miss my nephews. One reality I cannot avoid is that I am not self-sufficient. I haven’t had to think about myself as unit of independent sufficiency for 20+ years. Now I’m caught in the fallout of […]

Photos: Community Cats in Cold Winter Weather

The trail cameras on my deck captured stunning images of our cat colony this week. The camera is next to their heated water bowl and lined up with the two heated shelters. The gallery is here We see them at vulnerable moments, escaping the cold or readying to face it. Proximity to the water dish […]

Gallery: Community Cats in Cold Winter Weather

A little background information here

Pet Food Pantry Registers Ten New Households

Pet Food Pantry Pittsburgh

Yesterday, we restocked the Dr. John P. Ruffing VMD Pet Food Pantry with recent donations and strategized on the January distribution. We continue to believe that inflation is impacting our pantry households and potential donors. We’ve added ten households – six members of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh who are on strike from the Pittsburgh […]

My best friend Dr. John Ruffing died 17 years ago. His legacy is now a pet food pantry.

Dr. Ruffing Pet Food Pantry

All week, I’ve been loading donations for The Dr. John P. Ruffing VMD Pet Food Pantry into my borrowed Land Rover that we’ve dubbed St. Gertrude or Gertie. She contains multitudes of cat food. Now,there’s no interior light so I bought a head lamp. I added a USB port to the cigarette light – oh […]